The French government is backing parliamentary plans to ban unhealthily thin models from catwalks. Under two proposed amendments to recent health reforms, anyone employing skinny, undernourished fashion models or “glorifying anorexia” could face fines of up to €75,000 (US$80,000; £54,000; A$104,000) and a six-month prison sentence.

These measures, if passed into law, would oblige models to provide medical certificates showing that their body mass index (BMI, which is a type of height-to-weight ratio) exceeds a required minimum. The acceptable minimum BMI has yet to be decided, but the World Health Organization considers people with a BMI below 18.5 to be underweight and at risk of being malnourished.

Setting the limit at this level could mean significant changes to the fashion and advertising landscape. Research suggests that the average fashion model has a BMI below this threshold. In a 1997 study published in The Lancet, for instance, researchers used biometric data (such as height, bust, waist and hip measurements) provided on model agency websites to estimate the mean BMI in a sample of 300 fashion models.

Teenage girls have been identified as being particularly vulnerable to the influence of media images.ITU Pictures/Flickr, CC BY

The proposed legislation would also tackle websites that promote anorexia. “Pro-ana” content is rife online, particularly on social media platforms, with members posting “thinspirational” photos of emaciated bodies and sharing tips and techniques for extreme weight loss and hiding disordered eating behaviour.

Studies show even modest exposure to websites such as these may encourage healthy-weight women without a history of eating disorders to significantly reduce their food intake and develop unhealthy eating behaviours.

Impact on sales

These findings suggest imposing a minimum BMI for fashion models could have a significant impact on the health and well-being of girls and young women. So there’s good reason for the measures to be more broadly accepted. But what could it mean for retailers’ bottom line?

This means advertisers could use larger models to sell their products without taking a hit on sales. Indeed, it’s possible that by promoting healthy body image in advertising, companies could even bolster customers’ affinity with and loyalty to the brand.

France appears to be taking a step in the right direction by backing this legislation. If the legislation passes, France will join Italy, Spain and Israel, which have similar laws. But ultra-thin models are just part of a societal landscape that promotes a very slender body ideal.

The mass media scrutinise the bodies of other public figures – film stars, musicians, even members of the royal family – heralding the “curves” of the skinny and shaming those with a more average physique. And magazines targeted at young women are packed with diet plans that promise to help readers to drop a dress size. As long as this continues, it is unclear what impact the proposed measures will have.

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Research shows that Instagram photos tagged with #eatingdisorderrecovery tend to feature thin, young, white, women. They also show stylized versions of food, reflecting a certain class status and engagement with “foodie” cultures.
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